Hide and Seek
by 2ndstar2daRight2
Summary: FORMERLY TITLED: A NEW BEGINNING A kidnapping case has reunited Hotch with his neice and nephew who are now under his care. What happended to everyone else? A Family/Angst/Mystery all in one!
1. A Secret Revealed

**Hide And Seek**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Criminal Minds...it belongs to CBS and its creators...I do however own Jess and Allison.

**Summary:** A kidnapping case reunites Hotch with missing relatives. The BAU works to catch a seemingly invisible kidnapper with their only witness, a 10 year old genius.

This fic contains corporal punishment (spanking) of teens in later chapters. I will post warnings at the beginning of those chapters. I do not approve of spanking in real life.

_If this isn't your cup of tea, stop reading now. I would rather not get flames. Thanks. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!_

_Jess may not come in for a few chapters. _

**Chapter 1: A Secret Revealed**

Jason Gideon walked through the halls of the BAU to his office to review a casefile sent to him from the PD in Lake George, NY. It was a bizarre case. A young child simply walked into the police department a week ago with bloodstains on her simply asking if someone could take her home. They had yet to fully identify the girl as she claimed to be someone who had gone missing 4 years prior with her brother.

Gideon sipped coffee as he read through the files and her initial statement to the police before freezing in his motions. She had claimed in her statement that her uncle worked for the FBI and it was his fault but she hadn't seen him before. She said his name was Aaron Hotchner.

An impromtu meeting was called within the BAU. As agents JJ, Reid, Morgan, and Garcia went into the meeting room, Gideon stopped Hotch.

"Now is not the time to be keeping secrets and I am telling you this first out of respect for you. We have been called to investigate a kidnapper in upstate New York who has reportedly kidnaps whole families. None have ever been found and there has never been evidence between these families to suggest kidnapping until today. One of his victims a 10 year old girl has been found in New York." Gideon hurried.

"I don't understand what this has to do with me personally but I assure you that this is not a case that seems to differ from others that we have had. The unsub is a serial kidnapper it appears and..." Hotch started.

"No, no. The victim that came forward is named Allison Danes. Her mother's name was Stacey Danes, formerly Stacey Hotchner. I recognized the name from your file as your sister who was reported missing about 4 years ago." Gideon said waving Hotch off.

"They found Stacey? I, I don't understand. You said Allison. What about Stacey and Brad and her brother Jess?"

Gideon said nothing as understanding passed between them.

"I can't go. Conflict of interest." Hotch said in realization.

"Not just that. She said that this was your fault. We have to clear you as a suspect first. Garcia will be here with you. Help her around here and I will keep you updated." Gideon moved towards the meeting room.

Hotch stood silently as he watched from the outside as Gideon filled the team on news from the case. He saw the look of horror and shock pass their faces before they turned and looked to him. Hotch curtly nodded before walking into his office. He knew he was next of kin and that he would become Allison's guardian. Though fear and worry that he hadn't felt as strongly in 4 years came rushing back as he considered the fates of the rest of the Danes family.

The last time he had seen the Danes had been 4 years ago, 2 months before they came up missing. He had got into a fight with Stacey as he urged her to leave her husband, Brad, as he drank too much and had been known to hit his children Allison and Jess who were aged at that time 6 and 11 respectively. The arguement led to him telling Stacey to no longer come to him with her problems and take care of herself and her kids on her own. That had been the last time he had seen any of the Danes.

_Meanwhile, in the meeting room..._

"Wow, I can't believe this has happened to Hotch. I can't believe he never said anything about having a sister let alone a niece and nephew." Morgan said in disbelief as he leaned back in the chair. He could understand keeping some thing secret like his secret with being sexually abused but he did not understand why a secret like this would be needed when it was their job to find people.

"Actually, everyone has a deep secret that they don't reveal as a way to cope with the pain and mental anguish of a traumatic event of some kind." Reid started before stopping himself. Though he had been known to go on and on sometimes, he knew this wasn't the right time to be shooting facts that no one was particularly interested in.

"Alright, Garcia you will be here with Hotch. Be prepared to run numbers and names if need be." Gideon said looking to Garcia.

"Ready like always." Garcia said before standing.

"Morgan you will be running the interview with the victim with Reid. JJ and I will go to talk to the local schools and people. Someone had to have noticed something." Gideon said while standing up.

"Reid, be ready to give a victimology on the plane. We leave in 30 minutes." Gideon said while gathering files and walking out of the room.

JJ turned to Morgan before leaving the room, "I don't understand something. Why didn't Hotch say something? This is the BAU. Surely we could have done something. We do find people for a living after all." JJ said what had been on Morgan's mind moments prior.

"I don't think he believed they were truly missing. For now, lets just get to Lake George and answer some questions. We can ask these questions later." Morgan stated before they both left to prepare to leave.

_On the plane..._

"Unfortunatly, the victim could not say for sure who the other victims were because she only knew some by their first name. But she is confident that there had been about 40 people there." Gideon said briefly.

"Well, from the families from the area and surrounding areas that went missing, there isn't a common thread. They just seem to be normal families that one day disappeared. There was never evidence of a break in or a struggle at any of their residences. Its as if they voluntarily left or were somehow subdued all at the same time. Either we are dealing with more than one unsub or we have an extremely intelligent unsub to deal with." Reid said as he looked over the possible victims for the kidnapper.

"Okay, then let's look at the Danes since that is the only family we can name for sure were victims here. Garcia looked them up for criminal records and Stacey has been arrested once for possession though she never served time. That happened about 7 years ago, and up to two weeks prior to them being reported missing, Brad has been arrested for assault and battery. He went missing before his court date. Do you think it is possible that he took the family and ran instead?" JJ asked looking around for confirmation.

"No, it is not likely. The family car, wallets, and even their bank accounts hadn't been touched. If he did run, he would have needed money and he wouldnt have made it too far toting a 6 and 11 year old along with him." Gideon said.

"Huh, this is interesting," Reid said while getting off the phone with Garcia. "Allison at the age of 6 was considered a "genius" for her age. Her parents were putting her in a private school not too far from Lake George."

Conversation slowly died down as they had no real leads and the plane touched down at it's location. They bid farewell as they parted to go off in their respective locations. They had a kidnapper to find and a family that was related to Hotch that they may have even less time to find them in.

PLEASE REVIEW!!! ITS THE CHEESE TO MY MACARONI!!!!

2008


	2. Lost and Found

**Hide and Seek**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Criminal Minds.....it belongs to CBS and its creators....I do however own Jess and Allison.

**Summary:** A kidnapping case reunites Hotch with missing relatives. The BAU works to catch a seemingly invisible kidnapper with their only witness, a 10 year old genius.

This fic contains corporal punishment (spanking) of teens in later chapters. I will post warnings at the beginning of those chapters. I do not approve of spanking in real life.

_If this isn't your cup of tea, stop reading now. I would rather not get flames. Thanks. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!_

_Jess may not come in for a few chapters. _

**Chapter 2: Lost and Found**

After they exited the planes, Gideon and JJ entered into the police van at the airport and left to head over the private school and Morgan and Reid left to go to the police station to begin questioning on their victim.

As the car left the airport and headed toward the town, Reid and Morgan both became captured with their surroundings. A beautiful lake came into view along with a forest that seemed to have been left untouched from human hands and destruction. The officer driving noticed that their surroundings had their attention and added,

"Beautiful, isn't it? You should see this place during the summer. It's crawling with tourists but even then they won't do any damage to the area." The officer turned his attention back to the road for a little while before continuing, "That is probably why this is such a sad case for the area. Lake George isn't a large community though it is definitely not small. It's very rare that we get any real problems besides people getting lost in the woods or emergency calls out to the lake."

Before conversation could continue, they had entered into a town and turned into the police station parking lot. Morgan and Reid looked around the area. It was obviously a town set up for tourism with small antique stores but because it was only October, the place seemed somewhat empty without all of the life teeming about.

"If he is keeping his victims here, he made a good choice," Morgan started, " there is hardly anyone here and with the woods that large, its highly unlikely anyone could have stumbled upon where he keeps people if the unsub keeps the victims out there."

Reid and Morgan walked into the police station and were ushered into their interrogation room where a small girl and a social worker were sitting.

"I'm Denise and this is Allison," Denise motioned towards the dark haired girl sitting at a wooden table in the middle of the room.

"I'm Agent Derek Morgan and this here is Dr. Spencer Reid and we are from the BAU," Morgan turned to Allison and continued, "That's---"

"..Part of the FBI in Quantico. I know." Allison said knowingly while staring at a spot on the table.

"Um…Alright then," Morgan stuttered as he took a seat to the left of Reid. He stole a quick glance at Reid and saw that he was profiling the girl sitting across from Morgan.

Allison was wearing a big shirt and a baggy jacket as well as a pair of jeans that was clearly too big for her. It was evident that the clothes did not belong to her but rather were donated or given to her instead.

"Allison, we need to know what happened to you and your family. Can you tell me about the night you guys disappeared?" Reid questioned as he reached up to nervously push back some of his hair.

Allison continued to stare at the table and stayed quiet. Morgan looked over a Reid before reaching across the table and held out his hands to her. Allison looked at his hands before slowly bringing her gaze up to meet his eyes.

"Not really." Allison continued to stare at Morgan as she began to answer Reid's question. "Jess came to my room and said we had to go and Mom and Dad were already in the car. So we got in and Benny drove away."

Morgan gave her a quick smile before withdrawing his hands from the table. "Who's Benny? Did you know him?" He continued as he shifted in his seat.

Allison cocked her head to the side, "Benny was in charge. We just went because Mom and Dad said we had to go." She turned her head to Denise for a second to almost make sure she was saying the right things before she continued, "Jess was scared a little, I think. He didn't act like he was, but I think he was. Benny didn't want us to be scared."

"He didn't want you to be scared," Reid asked as he shook his head, "I don't understand why your parents just went with him unless they knew him or trusted him somehow. Do you know where you went? And how did you escape?"

"He didn't want us to be scared because we were his new family. That's what he said. But you had to follow the rules. Mom was scared but she told Jess to look after me and do what Benny said, so we did. Benny stopped the car and made Dad get out. Benny came back a bit later by himself. He said Dad wanted to leave and wasn't following the rules. We knew better. He had blood on him but didn't act hurt. So we did what he said. We went to a house up Calder Way. Jess and I got bedrooms upstairs but Mom had to go in the basement by herself." Allison stopped as she started to think. She fidgeted in her seat a bit clearly growing nervous about continuing the story.

"Mom didn't come back up but he said she had broken too many rules so we couldn't see her again. He told Jess something but I didn't know what he said. Jess told me that we had to follow the rules and forget about Mom and Dad if we didn't want them hurt. I didn't really understand but I did what Jess told me. I always do."

Morgan looked over at Reid who was taking notes and then back at Allison. "I don't understand. You said that this was Aaron Hotchner's fault but I don't see how it is. I also don't understand how you were able to live in that house for 4 years without anyone noticing you or your brother or still how you left."

Allison hesitated before looking over to Denise. "I'm not allowed to tell because that would be breaking the rules."

"You're safe now but we need to know how to stop Benny from hurting other people." Morgan reassured her.

Allison shook her head, "I can't break the rules." She said it more slowly this time as if she were speaking to a young child.

Reid looked across the table at Morgan before back to Allison. "Allison we help people all the time. And it's okay that you're scared. I get scared sometimes too. Something bad happened to me once and I was really scared but once you talk about it, it gets better." Morgan and Reid caught eyes and Morgan knew immediately what Reid was talking about.

"Jess and I had different names." Allison started slowing and quietly. "We went to school with other kids but we weren't allowed to have friends or cause trouble at school. Other people came to the house to be in the family but they wouldn't follow the rules so Benny made them go downstairs with Mom. Benny said that Jess and I were special because we always followed the rules."

"Couple months ago he brought new people to be new family but only one would listen. Her name was Sam. She's 15 like Jess. But then she snapped and wouldn't stop crying saying she wanted her family. She ran away and he brought her back. Sam tried to get help but he made her go in the basement. We were never allowed down there but I was afraid for her. She was always so nice to me and defended me when people called me weird. I just wanted to know that she was okay so I went downstairs and she was tied up from a pole on the ceiling and really hurt so I tried to help her."

"I thought that if I could get her down she would feel better. But Benny caught me. He was yelling and screaming and I ran back upstairs. I ran to the living room to Jess and Benny was still yelling and coming for me. So Jess left with me but we got separated while we were running and I came here." Allison paused before adding, "I never said that this was Uncle Aaron's fault. I said that _Benny _said that this was his fault cause he didn't care about Mom. Why isn't Jess here yet?"

Reid stumbled for a moment before saying, "We'll find him. I think this may be all we need. And this basically clears Hotch up as a suspect."

Morgan and Denise started speaking about arrangements to get Allison living with Hotch as Reid and Allison continued to sit at the table.

Meanwhile…

Gideon and JJ were reviewing all that the private school had told them before heading over to the public school to find out all they needed to know about why school official's weren't interested in Jess and Allison's antisocial behavior and why the private school didn't find it suspicious that one of their students just disappeared.

"It's just strange that a private school can so easily dismiss a student just disappearing into thin air and think nothing of it." Gideon started as he drove towards the hotel.

"Well, I guess all they really cared about was the money. Once the money disappeared, so did their care towards her. Also, did you find it odd that no teacher in the high school thought anything of Jess being a loner? I mean, no high school kid chooses to be a loner, society just sort of makes you one and you adjust to it, but you certainly don't choose it. And how did Allison manage to hide her genius without anyone noticing?" Gideon continued.

"It's like that old saying; if a tree falls in a forest does anyone hear it? An entire family disappears and no one seemed to have noticed them gone or even seemed to care that they left all of their belongings behind and left town." JJ said as they headed turned into the hotel parking lot.

"People only see what they want to see. We are dealing with a very dangerous and intelligent unsub." Gideon sighed.

PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

ALL SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!!!!

2008


	3. A Few Answers

**Hide and Seek**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Criminal Minds...it belongs to CBS and its creators...I do however own Jess and Allison.

**Summary:** A kidnapping case reunites Hotch with missing relatives. The BAU works to catch a seemingly invisible kidnapper with their only witness, a 10 year old genius.

A/N: Sorry I suck. I have been procrastinating like a pro when it comes to updating. I promise that I will try to update more frequently although I would be willing to work on this story with another person if they would like Also, it is so funny that the direction I was going for this story actually because an episode where the boy was kidnapped and was taking pictures of the other kids that were taken as if to make sure someone was able to find them. Great episode though.

This fic contains corporal punishment (spanking) of teens in later chapters. I will post warnings at the beginning of those chapters. I do not approve of spanking in real life.

_If this isn't your cup of tea, stop reading now. I would rather not get flames. Thanks. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!_

_Jess will show up in the next chapter!_

**Chapter 3: A Few Answers**

Morgan leaned forward in his chair so his arms were now resting on the table in front of him where they were seated. The little girl's light brown hair and bright blue eyes seemed in deep conflict with the Spartan interrogation room and the darkness that seemed to have settled within those bright eyes.

"Sweetheart, we are going to do everything we can to help you and to find Jess, but we need to know everything that you can remember first. Do you know what Benny meant when he said that this was your uncle's fault?" Morgan asked gently sensing that Allison might be hesitant to break any more rules that Benny had instilled into her mind.

"Mommy called Uncle Aaron because Dad sometimes got a little mean. He never meant to get angry or hurt us, it only happened when he drank. Then Dad got arrested and was supposed to go to court and he started drinking a lot more so he was angry more." Allison trailed off as she stared off to the right at the bleak walls of the room seemingly lost in a memory of long ago.

Allison started again just as quietly as she ended, "Mom wanted us to go to Uncle Aaron for a few weeks. She said Dad just needed some time to fix himself and everything would be okay," she smiled ruefully before continuing, "but Jess and I weren't dumb. Mom started to yell on the phone at Uncle Aaron and said he never helped her and she just wanted this one favor. I don't know what he said, but Mom said something that I'm not allowed to say because it is bad to say then hung up the phone. Benny came for us the next day."

Morgan sighed before leaning back in the chair as he studied the girl in front of him. There was something wholly melancholy about her and he knew that in her years spent with Benny, she had witnessed and experienced things that most people never encountered in their entire lives. She was 10 years old but seemed far older than her years. The unsub had stolen her innocence and her youth.

Reid looked at Morgan briefly before addressing Allison, "Allison, I need you to tell me about the day he came for you. I know it's going to be hard and that you are afraid to say so much, but you _are_ safe now. Think back to that day and try to tell me everything that you remember."

Allison shook her head as Denise attempted to prod her to answer their questions. She brought her legs up onto her chair and wrapped her arms around them before putting her head on her knees. The shirt she wore, a red flannel shirt, seemed to reach around her like a blanket offering warmth.

"Allison, is that shirt yours or is it Jess's?" Reid asked softly. He noted that straight down to her shoes seemed to be boys hand-me-downs rather than clothes often seen on a young girl.

Allison kept her head down and nodded before she burst out into tears. "He's gonna be mad at me. He's gonna be mad! I broke the rules, I broke the rules, I broke the rules…" she continued to say as her crying increased in intensity. Denise looked at the profilers and suggested that they were done for the day before attempting to calm down the child seated next to her.

"Allison, it's okay. He is not going to come anywhere near you. You are safe with me and the police and soon your Uncle will be up here too." She said glancing at Morgan for affirmation as he nodded his head.

"No! He can't come because Benny said it's his fault! Benny will be mad and make him go the basement like Mom! I want Jess!" Allison wailed before dissolving into a fit of tears. Morgan and Reid stood gently, as if not to upset her further and moved towards the door.

"We promise that you are safe now. If you can contact us tomorrow we would appreciate it." Reid said to Denise and she nodded and continued now with the arduous task of calming the young girl.

Reid and Morgan walked swiftly down the hallway reading to start making calls to Rossi and Hotchner.

"He has this child terrified. He has spent years manipulating her into believing that she can trust no one other than her brother and himself. Even now when she is safe with the police she is terrified of breaking these rules that have dominated her life for such a long time. We need to find her brother now before the unsub does." Morgan said before pulling out his phone to contact Hotchner.

Please Review!

All suggestions are welcomed!

2011


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